Hey fellow Yakers.
Thought ya'll might like a look at my bimini-sidekick mount. Did this so my wife could have shade and I got to have my ama's at mid boat and still be able to sail. See Stringy's reply post for pics I edited mine out due to size.

_________________VRC

Last edited by HAR01DAV on Wed Apr 08, 2009 11:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

Nice work on that bimini/sidekick mount HAR01DAV! I've resized your pics so that they are easier to see:

Did you make the mount yourself and how did you fix it to the hull?

PS-The problem with your pics is that they are too large for simple forum viewing. I resized your 2048x3072 pics to 33% which makes them much quicker to download. 800x600 is a good size and I wouldn't go any larger than 1280 x1024. This post where RR details the sizes of pics may help.
http://www.hobiecat.com/community/viewt ... t+pictures

Hey Stringy,
Thanks for the resize. I still don't know exactly what all that means. Do you think that using the zoom on my camera is what caused the size difference. Thats the only thing I did different from last time. And yes a friend and I made the mount out of al. But it sits to high and bimini joint touches my wife when she really sits back. So we made another mount.
It took a little more lathe work but it's 4"s shorter, lighter and just a cleaner set-up. I'll post new pics first chance I get. I used alot of arm and a rachet to tighten it but I got it thru bolted. I'm 5' 10" and it was all I could do to reach to get nuts started. I have the scratches to prove it. what helped most is I drilled screw holes small and tapped them. that way I had mount tight but not so tight I would pull treads out of plastic. Put on fender washers and nut then tightened with a rachet.

Do you think that using the zoom on my camera is what caused the size difference.

No. The size difference is all down to the settings of the camera. If you are taking pics and your camera is set to the highest quality then you are capturing more pixels, which means more info/detail and a larger file size.
For successful posting of pics you can either reduce the resolution using the camera settings (max of 1024x 768 or even 800 x 600) or you can use software to reduce the size. I remember Roadrunner once posted about emailing the pictures to himself because some email programs automatically shrink the pic.
Great work in being able to through bolt the crossbar! What is your opinion of the sidekicks when sailing? I have often thought of getting them for my Tandem but was not sure of their durability. How do you think they would stand up to long term pounding from chop?

Once again looks like a great job on that mount HAR01DAV!Glad the roller furling worked OK.Thanks for that info. I've finally ordered the sidekicks. We are going away next week and should get a chance to give them a good work out.

[quote="HAR01DAV"]Hey fellow Yakers.Thought ya'll might like a look at my bimini-sidekick mount. Did this so my wife could have shade and I got to have my ama's at mid boat and still be able to sail. See Stringy's reply post for pics I edited mine out due to size.[/quote]Just found someone with a New Mantis Bimini for $100 dollars cant pass that up, and this Texas Sun will put a whoopin on you. Gonna have to get back to you on it when I get my hands on it since I have my outriggers in place already......Nice Setup, been viewing this along time and now I see the new design.........Steve

[quote="HAR01DAV"]I made the mount out of al. But it sits to high and bimini joint touches my wife when she really sits back. So we made another mount.[/quote]Could you please email me, I would like to ask a few questions.......Thankx, Steve

Hey, Steve I'm new to all this forum stuff. I don.t know how to find your email on the forum or how to email you from here. Help me with that and we'll see if I can answer any question You have on the mount. HAR01DAV (VRC)

Steve,sorry I've taken so long to reply. Had a tragedy in the family. Tried e-mail from work but it did'nt work. So here's the scoop on the mount for those who are interested. It's all ALum .except for the hardware that came with the ama's. I used Alum. conduit nipples to make cross. I want to say it was 2"x6" for main shaft but it could have been 1 3/4x6. I had to cut down top of 6" nipple OD to match Bimini top mount clamp ID. I had access to a lathe. I drilled a 1 1/8" thru-hole cross ways very near bottom of 6" nipple. It has to be just right so ama tubing height matches ama screw mount brackets at ends. In the thru-holes I cut down and slid in from each side two "1x1" alum. conduit couplings until they butted in the middle of thru-hole. Then welded cross together. You will want to slide something other than ama tubing in cross during welding to keep it from warping. Then just weld cross to 1/4" alum. plate I drilled a hole in plate just the right size for bott. of cross to set in and welded from bott. to plate. I"m fairly certain of My measurements but if I were you I would use calipers and measure all ID's and OD's before drilling or cutting down on lathe. Thats it and once again Steve so very sorry this took so long. VRC.